Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Very quick notice about good news for Informix (original version here)

English version
It has been a long day, but I still have 5m to share a couple of things... I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Picket, a distinguished contributor for the Informix community, and as usual it was enlightening and fun. During the conversation I "complained" about the lack of time to update this blog, in spite of having several topics I'd like to cover, considering the new features that we're seeing popping up in Informix. And when I got home, while checking the email I just noticed the perfect (and lazy) way to do an update on the blog. IIUG, who recently organized the annual conference just informed the users that the session's presentations are ready for download here: http://www.iiug.org/sessions.zipAs usual, there are lots of interesting presentations, but I'd like to highlight one in particular: Nicholas Geib and Jeff McMahon "What's new in Informix". Some of the things mentioned were new to me... Haven't seen them even in internal documents...

Sunday, March 24, 2019

A few details about Informix 14.10 license terms (original version here)

English version
Informix 14.10 introduces a few changes in terms of licenses. But fear not... the changes are for better... although one aspect may cause some confusion, and that's why I'm starting the review of 14.1 changes by this aspect.
Let's start by what can cause some confusion. IBM maintains the following Informix editions:

No cost editions

Informix Innovator-C edition

Informix Developer edition

Cost editions

Informix Express edition

Informix Workgroup edition

Informix Enterprise edition

Informix Advanced Enterprise edition

Informix Advanced Developer edition

You may notice that the Informix Advanced Workgroup edition is no longer an option.
But if you see the download package you'll probably see ONLY the Informix Developer edition, even if your organization is entitled for Express/Workgroup/Enterprise/Advenced Enterprise or Advanced Developer edition(s). Why? Well because one of the features introduced in 14.1 is the Informix Edition Installer which basically permits that an administrator changes the edition license he has installed. We can also use the License Installer to define the edition at installation time. So, and because of that you'll have the Developer edition package and one of more License Installer packages available for your download. You should decompress both packages to the same temporary installation director like:

As you can see in bold, there is the usual "ids_install" script and the "ee_edition.jar" (the "ee" stands for Enterprise edition). So this will be an Enterprise Edition installation.
If needed we can later change the edition by decompressing the License package and run:

$INFORMIXDIR/jvm/jre/bin/java -jar ee_edition.jar -i <console|gui>

NOTE: At the time of this writing, some packages have the "*.tar" extension, but they're actually "*.zip" files. If you have issues to "untar" a TAR file just try with unzip. Hopefully this will be fixed shortly.
So, this is the difference that may cause some confusion... What other license changes have been introduced?:

A new license model called Virtual Processor was introduced. It's available for Express, Workgroup, Enterprise and Advanced Enterprise editions.It's basically based on the number of cores made available to a virtual server. It allows a better understanding of the license model when the number of cores available for a number of virtual servers might exceed the number of real cores. Imagining a server with 16 physical cores supporting a number of servers where the sum of the PVUs for those servers could be higher than the equivalent PVUs for the physical server (let's say 20), this metric clearly defines 16 Virtual CPUs as the maximum charge.

The limits for Informix Workgroup edition were increased. Now we can use it until the limit of 24 CPU VPs (as defined by the NUMCPUVPS parameter) - previously was 16 - and the memory limit was increased to 32GB (as defined by SHMTOTAL) when previously it was 16GB

The storage optimization feature which was the only extra available on top of Enterprise Edition is now included in that version

So, in summary, one edition was discontinued (Advanced Workgroup), a new license metric was introduced which may help to clarify the required entitlements in some cases, new increased limits for Workgroup Edition and the inclusion of compression in Enterprise edition. All in all, mostly good news.More articles will come more focused on the technical enhancements of 14.10

Thursday, March 14, 2019

English version
I will not waste too much time rumbling about my absence in this blog. Just a fact of life due to lack of time. I haven't stopped working with Informix. Haven't lost interest nor have turned away from it...But this news are so important that I can't look away and not post something. After the change to HCL many people predicted (again) the dismiss of Informix.... guess what... They were wrong again... HCL/IBM are launching the next major version of Informix (14.10). And they/we also improved communication and asset sharing because the Knowledge Center is already updated ( https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGU8G_14.1.0/com.ibm.po.doc/new_features_ce.htm). The packages should be "arriving" at the customer's passport advantage sites and hopefully the trials should be refreshed soon.

I will not detail the new features here, as I hope to do it later with more time. But they range from the technical stuff, immediately visible and usable by customers to commercail licensing changes, and to infra-structure changes that will bring benefits in the future but are relatively "silent" for now.

Stay tuned and take a look at your PA sites... It should arrive there pretty soon...

About Me

I'm an IBMer and I've been working with IDS since I joined Informix in 1998.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this blog are personal and in no way represent IBM positions, strategy or opinions.
I chose to write this blog in English so that I could reach the maximum number of Informix users. Take notice that English is not my native language, so there are probably many mistakes.
I appreciate any comments, corrections and topic sugestions.
I can be reached at domusonline at gmail dot com.